County planners propose repurposing two lanes of Rockville Pike for exclusive bus use in their Bus Rapid Transit draft plan, to be presented tonight to the County Planning Board in Silver Spring.

The plan for Rockville Pike/MD 355, which planners think will be the busiest transitway in any countywide BRT network, would take away the two middle lanes of the six-lane road for bus-only traffic on MD 355 from White Flint all the way to Bradley Boulevard on the south end of downtown Bethesda.

With projected 20 percent increases in the county’s population, number of workers, transit work trips and vehicle work trips by 2040, planners say daily ridership on the “MD 355 South Transitway” would hit between 44,000 and 49,000 southbound riders and between 22,000 and 34,000 for northbound riders.

The draft plan explains the justification for taking away two lanes of regular traffic on one of the county’s most notorious sections of bumper-to-bumper traffic:

Where bus rapid transit would move people most efficiently in a corridor, the space needed to accommodate transit should be dedicated first to those bus lanes; the remaining lanes would then be available for general traffic. If congestion is too high in the remaining lanes, providing additional general traffic lanes should be considered. The impacts associated with constructing the additional pavement — construction costs, environmental impacts, community impacts, etc. — should be weighed against the benefits of providing more accommodation for the less efficient mode.

In phase one of the project, which includes 79-miles of BRT transitways along 12 routes, buses from Bradley Boulevard to Friendship Heights on Rockville Pike would run in an exclusive curb-lane. Phase 2 would include a similar two-lane median set-up.

The draft plan also includes recommendations for a North Bethesda Transitway to connect the MD 355 corridor west to Montgomery Mall and the office buildings along Rockledge Drive and Rock Spring Drives.

The buses would run in mixed traffic along Old Georgetown Road between MD 355 and Executive Boulevard before switching to a reversible one-way median lane between Executive Boulevard and Rock Spring Drive. Along Rock Spring Drive, Fernwood Road and Westlake Terrace, the buses would be in a two-lane side running transitway that would add two exclusive bus lanes to the four lanes of traffic with a 40-foot easement.

Previous master plans said any transit system connecting to Montgomery Mall should go to the Grosvenor-Strathmore station, but planners determined the North Bethesda Transitway should go to White Flint since it will be in the middle of dense, mixed-use development.

Other corridors in the BRT network have faced some scrutiny over whether they will see enough riders, but the MD-355 corridor has consistently been portrayed as one of the most needed because of traffic from downtown Bethesda, Walter Reed National Military Medical and much upcoming development in White Flint.

The Planning Board hopes to hold a public hearing on the BRT plan in May before having worksessions and sending it to the County Council for final approval in July.

Connecting White Flint to Rockledge makes a lot more sense than Grosvenor to Rockledge. But taking away two lanes of 355 is worrisome.

sheila

traffic is bad enough with the six lanes on 355. =/

Ben Ross

Nobody is proposing to take any lanes away from any road.

What is proposed is to use lanes in a way that will carry more people, by putting buses on them instead of cars.

Dewey

Seriously, you think if 33% of the lanes are dedicated to buses, then 33% of the people using the road now will use buses? That’s the only way traffic will decrease. And what about the section from the beltway south to Bradley Blvd? All day it’s only two lanes of travel with a lane of parking.

http://www.facebook.com/tomasbridle Tomas Bridle

I was at this presentation last night, I appreciate the effort to find transportation alternative and I’m a big advocate of public transit in general, but this one is a stretch. Its hard to see why people who already have the option to use metro for virtually all of the 355 route would suddenly decide to abandon their cars to take a bus. Especially 33% of them. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bus on Wisconsin with more than 5 people inside. On the other hand, 90% of the cars have one occupant. Why not just make the curb lane on 355/Wisconsin an HOV-2 lane during rush hour, and encourage carpooling, slug lines and commuter vans? The cost and impact would be minimal compared to another big transportation project, especially on 355/Wisconsin which is already struggling to adapt to BRAC, etc.

Brian S.

As someone who lives immediately off of 355 in Bethesda, and uses 355 repeatedly every single day, this is one of the worst traffic management ideas I’ve heard and would make the road effectively impassable. We have Metro for 355; it’s awesome when you need fixed point destinations. When you don’t, a rapid transit bus won’t work either. All it will do is make bad traffic worse, as rapid bus transit is not an acceptable alternative for most uses. Don’t make an existing lane HOV-2, as that too would make things worse for most users of the road. Instead, add a new HOV-2 / Bus lane. It’s very painful, but at this point may be a necessary idea.